Thursday, December 9, 2010

". . . one of the Fathers bids that, as a result of just being seated unoccupied in one's cell, sitting there without any work and just guarding the walls for the sake of the name of Christ, one should have great hope. . . ."

St. Isaac the Syrian, "Concerning aspects of the way of stillness," =chap. 1 of the long-lost Second Part of the Writings, trans. Sebastian Brock. Sebastian Brock, "St Isaac the Syrian: two unpublished texts," Sobornost 19, no. 1 (1997): 19 (7-32). "Abba Sarmata in Budge, The Book of Paradise, i. 593 (no.9)", according to Brock.

"he it is who, while dwelling in his own being when there was none to urge him—in that nothing existed—of his own accord and in his grace was pleased to will that the worlds should come into being so that they might be aware of him, and he effected the creation in his grace, even holding us human beings—who are dust from the earth, a mute nature—worthy, for by means of his creative craftsmanship he raised us up to the state of rationality, so that we might stand and speak in his presence in prayer. . . ."

St. Isaac the Syrian, "Concerning aspects of the way of stillness," =chap. 1 of the long-lost Second Part of the Writings, trans. Sebastian Brock. Sebastian Brock, "St Isaac the Syrian: two unpublished texts," Sobornost 19, no. 1 (1997): 27 (7-32).

Sunday, December 5, 2010

—But this prying into the family life of a great man, Russell began impatiently.

Art thou there, truepenny?

—Interesting only to the parish clerk. I mean, we have the plays. I mean when we read the poetry of King Lear what is it to us how the poet lived? As for living our servants can do that for us, Villiers de l'Isle has said. Peeping and prying into greenroom gossip of the day, the poet's drinking, the poet's debts. We have King Lear: and it is immortal.